'Elena?'
A face bent over mine. Jeremy, dark hair falling over his forehead, shoved back with an impatient hand. Not possible. Not here. I closed my eyes.
'Elena?' Sharper now, worried.
I tried to move, but it hurt too much. Deciding to abandon myself to the hallucination, I lifted one eyelid.
'H-' I croaked, wanting to ask how he'd got there. 'H-' Nothing more would come.
'Don't try to talk,' he said. 'And don't try to move. I'm going to carry you to the truck. It's right over there.'
'C-Cl-'
'They have him, don't they?' His arms tightened around me.
'T-ten-o'clock,' I managed to get out, then everything went dark again.
This time I woke to warmth, artificial heat blowing across my face. I heard the humming of a motor, felt the vibration and small bumps of a car moving over a smooth road. I smelled old leather and shifted beneath the jacket slung around me. I stretched my legs, but the pain made me whimper and pull back.
'Is that too hot?' Nick's voice. I felt his arm move over me and reach for the vent. He tilted it away from my face.
'Is she awake?' Jeremy somewhere nearby. In front of me. The front seat.
'I'm not sure,' Nick said. 'Her eyes are closed. You can probably turn down the heat. She's got her color back.'
The click of a dial. The harsh blowing fell to a quiet drone. I opened one eye, then the other. I was propped half-reclining in the back seat of the Explorer, my head resting near the side window, legs curled beside me on the seat. Scenery and cars sped past. Antonio was in front of me, in the driver's seat. His eyes flickered toward me through the rearview mirror.
'She's awake,' he said.
A seat belt clicked open. Then the whir of denim on the cloth seats. Nick bent over me.
'Is it warm enough?' he asked. 'Can I get you anything?'
'T-ti-'
'Don't talk, Elena,' Jeremy said. 'Grab the water bottle from the cooler, Nick. She's dehydrated. Let her sip it, but not too much.'
Nick rummaged around in the cooler. Then a cold plastic straw touched my lips. I pulled back and gave a small shake of my head that sent lightning bolts through my skull.
'Ti-' I croaked. 'Ti-me. Wha-ti-me.'
'What time?' Nick lowered his face to mine. 'What time is it?'
I nodded, sending a shower of burning sparks through my head this time.
Nick still looked confused, but he checked his watch.
'Eleven-twenty… almost eleven-thirty.'
'No!' I shot upright. 'No!'
Nick jerked back. The Explorer swerved and Antonio swore, then yanked the steering wheel back on track. I fought to get out from under Jeremy's jacket.
'Elena.' Jeremy's voice came from the front seat, calm and firm. 'It's okay, Elena. Calm her down, Nick, before she gives your father a heart attack.'
'She just surprised me,' Antonio said. 'Nicky, make sure-'
I didn't hear the rest. I struggled free of the jacket and flung it aside, then fumbled to undo the seat belt. Every movement ripped through me. My hands were bruised and torn. I didn't care. I was late. I had to go. I had to get there. Now.
Nick grabbed the seat belt fastener away from me, but I already had it open and was squirming out of the restraining strap, Nick grabbed my shoulders.
'No!' I shouted and flung his hands off.
He grabbed me again, harder this time. I fought, baring my teeth and scratching any part of him I could reach.
'Stop the car,' I shouted.
The Explorer slowed to half speed, but no more, as if Antonio was deciding what to do.
'Keep going,' Jeremy said. 'She's delirious.
Nick struggled to keep me in my seat, his face hardening with resolve. I heard a sound in the front. Over Nick's shoulder, I saw Jeremy getting up from his seat, reaching back to restrain me. I gathered all my strength and control, drew back my fist, and punched Jeremy in the stomach. His eyes went wide and he doubled over. Some deep part of me was horrified, but I didn't care. The fever in my brain incinerated any pangs of conscience. I had to get out. I was late. Nothing else mattered.
I shoved Nick away and flung myself past him toward the opposite door. Grabbing the handle, I thrust it open and looked down. Gravel flew by in a gray blur. Nick shouted. The brakes squealed. The Explorer veered right. I tensed to jump. Two sets of hands grabbed me, one by the back, the other by the shoulders, and yanked me inside. I felt Jeremy's hands go around my neck, then pressure on the side of my throat, then blackness again.
I awoke in a memory. Every part of my body ached. I'd Changed last night. The recollection was dim, a montage of images-pain, fear, rage, disbelief. Yet I hadn't been running through New York State. I'd Changed in a 8' X 6' cell, manacled hand and foot. My seventh Change. Seven weeks since I'd come to this place. I had no idea what day it was, but I knew how many times I'd gone through hell and marked the time by that. When I awoke, I was still in the cage. I'd been in it for five weeks now, five Changes since the man gave up trying to keep me in a bedroom upstairs. I knew his name: Jeremy, but I never used it, not to his face, not even when I thought of him. To his face, I called him nothing. I refused to speak to him. In my mind, he was simply 'he' or 'the man,' a designation devoid of thought and emotion.
I awoke feeling the scratchy fabric of a mattress beneath me. There had been sheets once, soft flannel sheets and a comforter. Then he caught me tearing them into strips and thought I was planning to hang myself. I wasn't. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me dead. I'd torn up the sheets for the same reason I'd destroyed the magazines and clothing he'd brought for me, and the pretty pictures he'd affixed to the stone cage walls. I wanted nothing from him. I would accept nothing meant to make this cage seem like anything other than the hellhole it was. The only offering I accepted was food and I ate that only because I had to keep my strength up for when I escaped. That was what kept me going, the thought of escape. Soon I would get away, back to the city, to people who could help me, heal me.
I opened my eyes to see a figure on the chair outside the cage. At first I thought it was him. He sat there most of the day, watching me and talking to me, trying to brainwash me with the insanity that spilled from his lips. When my eyes focused, the figure became clearer, bent over, elbows on knees, gold curls shining in the artificial light. The one person I hated more than the man. Quickly, I closed my eyes and feigned sleep, but it was too late. He'd seen me. He got to his feet and started to talk. I wanted to stop up my ears, but it would do no good. I could hear too well now. Even if I could block his words, I knew what he'd be saying. He said the same things every time he came, sneaking in when the man was out. He tried to explain what he'd done, why he'd done it. He apologized. He pleaded with me to obey the man so that I could get out of the cage. He wanted me to talk to the man, to ask that his banishment be revoked so he could come back and help me. But there was only one way he could help me. Each time he came, each time he swore he'd do anything to make it up to me, I told him the same thing. The only words I'd speak to him. Fix me. Undo what you did.
'Clay.'
The sound of my voice woke me from my memories. I was on my back, staring up at a naked lightbulb on a whitewashed cement ceiling. I turned my head and saw solid stone walls. No windows. No ornaments. Beneath me, I felt the scratchy twin-size mattress. The cage.
